I've been thinking yesterday about our ideal of poverty. And I would just like to add a note to that, perhaps by way of summary. First of all, just to say that I feel that we are now... are fully engaged in the world. Our renunciation of the world has not been that we're not engaged, but rather that we're engaged at the deepest possible level. It seems to me that Amant is concerned with the re-creation of society from its very basis. while other religious orders generally accept the order of society in which they are and work within that, it seems to me a monk is called to withdraw in order to lay the foundations of a new society, and that is really exactly what is done by St.

[01:04]

Benedict. He simply laid the foundations of that new order of the Middle Ages, a Christian order, by withdrawing and building from the foundations. So it seems to me we as monks are concerned with laying the foundations, and as I said, particularly we normally live apart, we normally have a farm, and we're working at this basic order, where man has to have his food, his drink, and his clothing, and his shelter. These are not the basic things that man can normally have right there, being concerned with that. And that's why I feel that your monastery, and my own monastery in England, and also what we're trying to do in India, we are engaged on this basic monastic task, going right back to the foundation. And the second point, which I don't know whether I made quite clear, is that when we are detached from material things, when we renounce the world, through that detachment we give up the effort to dominate the world, to make ourselves the master of creation.

[02:27]

But by surrendering that domination, by surrendering that attachment to material goods, we really learn to use material things in the way that God intended. We surrender this false delineation in order that we may reach to a real cooperation with God in the use of material things, one may say in the work of creation. I think Sergio mentioned it to me, and I feel that it's very definitely our task to cooperate with God in the work of creation, and the work of creation goes all into the hands of man. And in our labor, in our work, in our farming, we are cooperating with God. and in whatever work of craftsmanship we may do. And let you know what's the original idea of work, that all the ancient world may not be cooperating with God, but maybe with the gods. In the pagan world, there's always a sense you are cooperating with the divine order.

[03:33]

So I think that is very important. You see, this is where our vocation is so basic. We're going right back to the foundations. We're projecting this exploitation of nature for the benefit of man, trying to return to that original order in which man depends upon God and cooperates with God in this use of material things. And the third point is arising from that, that this work of ours is one of the fundamental means by which we effect this return to paradise, this death and resurrection. As we die to this possessiveness, to the vice of kind-earnership, as Benedict called it, become detached from the world, so we are able to use things as they should be, and we return to that original order of providence in which man cooperates with nature in the service of God.

[04:36]

And so our domestic life is a real beginning of this recurrent paradise, and that is developed in the Old Testament. I haven't tried to develop it now, but I'd just like to mention it because you may find it worth following up. The whole conception of the The promise of the land. And God says to Abraham, get thee out of thy country, thy father's house, to the land that I will give thee. He goes out of Babylon, of the civilized world, this world corrupted by sin. He goes to the land that God has given him, and there he begins to lay the foundation of a true order of being, of the city of God. And that is harmonious creation. draw from Babylon and to enter into the land and there to work with God in the building of the city of God so that if you follow up that theme of the land you will see how the two ideas of the land and paradise are

[05:40]

intimately interwoven. In fact, as you go on through the Old Testament, so tragedy becomes clear that this land of promise is one of the paradises of the restoration of man to his original harmony with nature. As I say, that's rather a long theme, and one would have to take the whole conference to follow it up. But now I'd like to go on to the subject of virginity. not a matter of a vow with us, but nevertheless obviously facing in the monastic life and I would say in the Christian life. And here again I think we have to rethink the face of virginity in the Christian life. One of those things perhaps an even greater changes come, and in this matter of material wealth and quality. As you know, in the realm of farmers, you have these wonderful praises of virginity, but you have an almost corresponding depreciation of money.

[06:47]

Sometimes it is comparatively balanced, sometimes quite unbalanced, I think, in many of the fathers. And we have seen in our day a very, very strong movement within the Church to rediscover the place of marriage in the Christian life. And this corresponds to the general movement throughout the world, a repulsion from puritanism in all its forms, a recognition of the essential goodness of sex and of marriage, and of love. live out the consequences of that. Well, now, in the world in general, of course, we can't reject this movement. It's very strong in America. It's strong in the Western world, perhaps. This movement against puritanism, Victorianism in England, and your Puritan tradition in the United States.

[07:50]

And of course it has swung in the opposite direction, the recognition that sex is good, but sex without control obviously brings you to disaster. And without it then we are reaping the effects of that attitude of life. But within the Church there is this growing movement of concern for the place of marriage in Christian life, the recognition that marriage is not merely good, not merely holy, because it's a sacrament, but it's actually a way of perfection. I think we're all now becoming conscious of that, that in this... giving of themselves to one another, the man and the woman, become one in Christ, and this love of one another in Christ in marriage is one of the means of Christian perfection. You know, there are many people in the world today who are living a really wonderful Christian apostolic life in Mary.

[08:52]

I think this is a great achievement of the modern world. No doubt it was much the same in the early church, but from a very early time, from the 4th, 5th century onwards, I think we can say the ideal of virginity is so far predominated that this idea of a perfection of life in marriage was of a lost cycle. So, that is a positive gain. And also, I think you probably know that the modern theology of marriage is developing very much, and we're learning to see that though it's very right, of course, necessary at the time to insist that marriage is for the production of children, yet we get a very inadequate idea of a sacrament of marriage or of the mystery of marriage if we think of it simply in terms of procreation.

[09:53]

Obviously that is an essential element in it, but it is not the whole. And I think the modern theology of marriage tends rather to consider marriage as a community of love. I think that is the phrase which is being used and which expresses more accurately the Christian ideal. It is this man shall leave his father and his mother and keep his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And there in this community of love, the man and the woman fulfill their human nature in Christ. It's a method of fulfillment of our human nature. The complementary halves, man and woman, are united in a home. Well, now, this is a very wonderful ideal, and it's very necessary for us to understand it and appreciate it. At the same time, we must not see the ideal of virginity in relation to this ideal of marriage.

[10:59]

and with no reason at all to go back on the teaching of the Church, which sees in virginity a higher state, an adapted state, a way of perfection, which, as I say, marriage can be, for those who are called to it, a way of perfection, yet virginity is more adapted to this perfection of the Christian life. Well now, what is the reason for that? Well, let's go a little deeper now. Let us consider what is this basis like of marriage and virginity. We're concerned here with the most fundamental force in our life, the force of love really. As I said, marriage is a community of love, and the whole of this problem of marriage and virginity is concerned with this force of doubt in its deepest sense. For instance, Augustine said, Tamor meos, hondos meos, my great, my inclination, the whole bearing of my nature is in love.

[12:07]

And we are all rooted, as modern psychology has revealed, in this doubt from the very moment of birth. The child has the impulse of doubt in its nature, and it goes out with parents and to what God calls the mother, the father, and then to mother and sister, because it's all the evolution of this power of love in our lives. And This has to grow a long definite line. You know, the psychologist traces this failure of love. It gets stopped in its growth. If the child stops in the love for its mother, then you can get a whole emotional life fails to develop. It remains an infantile state. And so at the other stage it could stop. at these different phases, but I think it's rather important that we can all perceive that marriage is only a phase in the development of our love.

[13:09]

I think often marriage is considered as the ultimate goal, but to a Christian, surely, that can never be so. Marriage is one of the phases. In the development of our love, at a certain time, in adolescence, this port of love becomes canonized normally in sex, and this relationship of the man and the woman begins to develop towards marriage. and that is called perfectly normal and right. But surely we must see that this development of love along the line of marriage is not the final stage. Obviously marriage is concerned with the creation of children, and there is a phase which both the man and the woman must pass. At a certain stage the woman is past childbearing, and that she could no longer fulfill herself along those lines. And I think for many women, and I've seen many Christians and Catholics, there is a sense that they have no further goal beyond it.

[14:16]

But surely we should see that there is an ultimate goal beyond it, that this community of love which begins with the parents in their marriage, in their childbearing, That should be fulfilled at the end of life. They are past that phase, but now marriage ends with more deep spiritual communion, a very deep communion of the whole being, and this fulfillment of the man and the woman in Christ. it seems to me should really take place after the family has grown. Then it is that marriage should reach its peak level of fulfillment. I think that's rather rare. So we must see that the ultimate goal is not simply marrying the children. That is necessarily the propagation of the race, but it's only a phase, obviously, into a destiny and the ultimate stage will be reached when there is no more marrying or giving in marriage. We're moving towards a goal when we pass beyond the demands of marriage.

[15:21]

Now that surely helps us to see the grace of virginity, which the Fathers saw so clearly. They were always looking at the Teschaton and the Aenon, and they saw that in the light of the Resurrection there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and therefore the fulfillment of human life, both for the man and the woman, is a transcendence of the state of marriage. And that is the common goal for all Christians. But in that respect, it is not difficult to see how some Christians may be called to go more directly to that goal. It is not necessary to pass through the state of marriage in order to reach the goal of fulfillment of our love in God, Many girls at this stage of marriage may also go more directly. Quite clearly, it is the kids that are definitely calling. The majority are called to fulfill themselves in marriage, minority would always be called to fulfill that state, to realize the love of God more completely and realize, to realize not only the love of God, to realize their own nature of love, to see this impulse of love in their nature will be realized for them fully without passing through marriage.

[16:41]

Well, now, that shows us the place of the Genitive. It also shows us what is our real purpose. In our monastic life, our love must be fulfilled. That is absolutely clear. And if it isn't fulfilled, then our monastic life will never be complete, and our Christian life will never be complete. And that is something to which we ought to pay attention. Now, this letter about the relation between sex and God, let us say, is very fundamental, and it comes out very much in ancient pagan religion. You know, in all ancient religion, sex was regarded as something holy. And I think that is something very fundamental to us all. It's a very unfortunate current condition throughout in Protestant heaven, but also, unfortunately, in Protestantism and the Jansenistic communities, probably very weak.

[17:47]

really a profound error came in, by which sex was regarded as something animal, something rather degraded, something which wasn't spoken about, and which was kept out of sight. And that, of course, is disastrous. You're simply a bit woozy to accept the fundamental impulse about age, to see how it comes from God, and to see its sexual holiness. Now, I'm sure the pagan was profoundly right. He saw the holiness of sex. To him, it was always something mysterious, wonderful, coming from God, and always related to God. We'll never find a true pagan who regards sex as something profane, as we now do. It's not that it has to be fulfilled in a profane way. No, it bears on our relation to God. But now in Hinduism, you know, you have this cult of the Linga, and many Christians, particularly Protestants, I think, but Catholics as well, have been terribly shocked by this cult of the Linga, the lailed organ of generation, which is simply universal in Hinduism.

[19:01]

I remember once I was going along a river, a very doesn't part the country is what I did see and I saw a little shrine on the side of the river and I looked in and it was a very simple stone shrine and within was nothing but the lingam and the yogi, the male and the female or the regeneration. And you know, there's absolutely nothing sensual or evil in that. When you say the sculpture is very rough and attempt to be suggestive in any way, it is simply a recognition of this fundamental holy power in human life. The recognition of this is basic to our human life and that we've got to relate it to God and to our whole human life. The Hindu doesn't hide it away. He accepts it fully and he relates it to God. I don't say there have not been many abuses. There have been profound abuses and really serious ones in Hinduism, but still the basic attitude surely is perfectly right.

[20:09]

It's the acceptance of this give to God an awareness of its essential holiness. Well now, we as Christians can certainly accept that, but we have to say immediately, if this gift is holy, if this power is holy, then it must be consecrated to God, to the true God. And consequently, whatever our state is like, we have to consecrate our sex to God, whether in marriage or in virginity. That is the choice which lies between us, never the exception of something profane as a mere sensual act of life. It is something belonging to the depth of our nature and involved in our relationship to God. If we accept, then, that this world of sex is holy, and if we find in ourselves a call to give our lives totally to God, then we are involved in giving this

[21:13]

part of sex in our nature to God. And I think in our monastic life, we must make that into consideration. We must not allow it simply, I mean, to pretend in any way that we sort of left that behind. When you come into the monastery, you've left behind sex and marriage. But of course you haven't. You brought it in with you. It's in your nature. And it's got to find a place in our life. We can't just suppress it, which is, of course, disastrous, or simply try to lead it out. It's got to have its positive place in our life. And, of course, once we begin to think of it in terms of the power of love, then, obviously, it has a definite place in our lives. Now, I'd like to make a suggestion in regard to this. Um... which I feel is very important, and that is this, that in every human being there is a male and a female nature.

[22:15]

We are men or we are women, but that doesn't mean that we are wholly masculine or wholly feminine. Every man has a feminine part for his soul and every woman has a masculine part. I young you know this name than I think today. The fact of knowledge is that the masculine element in every soul is the animus, and the feminine element is the anima. So that in every human being there is this animus, which in the male is domina, While the animal, the female element, is subconscious, is beneath. And in the woman, the animal, the feminine element, dominant normally. And the masculine element is beneath, is subconscious. So that is the normal pattern of human life. And in marriage, you have a meeting. the animals in the animal park, and the woman will help the man to bring out the feminine part of his nature, and the man will help the woman to bring out the masculine part of their nature.

[23:25]

There should be a gradual fulfillment, as I said, of their nature through marriage. Although now, in virginity, surely it is clear that what we're called to do is to bring about this marriage within ourselves. There must be a marriage in us between the animus and the anima, the masculine and feminine elements in our nature. And we should surely be able to recognize these two parts of our nature, never to try to develop the one for the expense of the other. And I think these have very practical results. The Kalima, which is taken first, because it's the hidden part of our nature, the one we're trying not to recognize, is the feminine, it is the instinctive life, It is the emotional life as a whole, and I would also say it's the intuitive power of the mind, that in the mind itself is a masculine power of reason, of logic, and of the feminine power of intuition, of imagination.

[24:33]

And so also in the emotional life there are masculine powers of sound. anger, as some would call it, is a dominant power, and then there is the passive power of love. And so also in our instinctive life. So we all have this spontaneous, instinctive life with its power of emotion, imagination, and intuition. And it's the most precious gift of God. It is this necessary, complementary part of our nature. And you know, this works out in the social sphere. I've been very conscious in India. Most Indians, I think most oriental, but certainly Indian, particularly South Indian, whom I live, are very feminine in their nature. You feel it immediately, and the more you know them, the more you realise how they're tolerated. Much more than normal people. I mean, the ordinary man is much more dominated by his own immerse, by this unconscious

[25:39]

spontaneous life and I think it's very true probably in Africa all this natural spontaneous dance and song and childlike joie de vivre which you get all that belongs to the animal And it's very precious. And to me, it gives a wonderful beauty to life. When you see an Indian simply walking, it's a beautiful spontaneous movement. And there's a natural beauty. I mentioned the extreme poverty in which they live in rural huts. And yet, you know, you see children coming out of those huts. But there's perfect beauty. Young girls, for instance, they wear these very simple saris. It doesn't cost anything much. But they're superbly beautiful. And really, when you compare them with people in the West who've got all the resources of wealth and luxury, they don't attain that spontaneous beauty which that child attained.

[26:42]

And this comes from this free, uninhibited life of the anima. They have their weakness and have been discovering that more and more. They live from their anima, from the unconscious, beautifully and spontaneously, but they haven't got the moral and rational control which we have. And consequently, they do the most terrible things. They're completely unreliable. You never know what they'll do. I mean, they'll tell lies with absolute spontaneity. But they're not very earnest, you see. It's quite different. It's not a deliberate, malicious lie. It's simply they won't please you. If you are powerful, it is. You do this in many parts of the world, certainly in India. If you're walking somewhere and you ask how far it is to your destination, well, they look at you and they see you're looking very tired. It's several miles. You'll be very unhappy. I said, oh, it's just a few furlong.

[27:43]

Oh, really? uh, you know, cannibals of unredeemability and what we would call playing dishonestly in love and feelings and so on. But it's very valid literature. It's really simply obeying this spontaneous movement of nature. And so I, when I first went out, I was simply enchanted with this, and I thought how wonderful it was. But I soon began to find it's such an experience for me that you can never rely on anybody. You never know when something is true or not. You've just got to work out and ask other people and find out who they're used to that. They know how to deal with each other. When somebody says something, they immediately begin to inquire whether it's true or in what way it's true or not.

[28:45]

I'll give you an example. We had to do a great deal with government officers in our farm and so on. And I think I mentioned we were cooperating with the government in this. And we get wonderful assistance from them. They're very keen on helping on our farm. And I know one of the basic reasons for this is that we are comparatively honest. And they know that if they help us, we shall make proper use of it. And on the other hand, they know that when they start a government file, the person in charge will simply be concerned with his own advantage and will be misusing everything that's done. I mean, that's the general law. It's very unfortunate. I mean, all the development of the internet, most part of the East, it's being frustrated. They could have misused all this money and resources disposed of the government for a cost, and it's all given, and they simply use it in their own traditional way, just for their own budget, for their family, and so on.

[29:51]

and they think that it will really go to the right channel. And consequently, when they see somebody using it rightly, they are really anxious to help them or make them. And for a long time, it's a great code of cement. It's always happening. Some doctor dies up. All the government talks of cement, and so they talk of a backlog if you aren't getting it the normal way. And so we used to go to the government of the concern to try to get some. And we were quite naive that the way we could always do it. I promised that he goes along on these occasions. And he goes, you know, in this coffee, and he goes, there, I put you a slip. And I think this creates a regret for him. I didn't really concern. And he would see... Dozens of people waiting for their supply of cement to flow on, and he would go in and off 200 bags, and right off would give it to him straight away. And we asked about this, and they said it was quite simple.

[30:53]

When anybody else offered to cement, he's got to do it. the man really is going to do about it, what he's after, actually. When you ask for it, he's fairly certain that he knows what you're going to do with it. So you see how it works. Well, now, I think that you have this spontaneity in life, but you've not got this moral and rational control. I mean, it would come with a definition, but I don't think that there's any natural I think it's a simpler education. On the other hand, you see, we have the opposite. We lost the past from childhood. The panellist is predominant. We are trained to be rational and logical and be self-controlled. control ourselves, and you can see that in the way we walk and behave. I've often watched it in a city like that in Galore. You see the Indians going along, and as I said, walking is perfectly spontaneous, and it has no particular purpose.

[31:59]

They're just walking along, and they see somebody, and they turn aside, and they'll talk to them, and then they go on a little, and so on. And all through the day, they're really, there's no sort of directing purpose at all. They're just being carried from thing to thing. There is a sort of purpose in the background. But you see that the European or the American, and you can see purpose within all of everything. LAUGHTER He dominates it from the head, and his movements are all controlled from the head, you see. And his walking is not at all beautiful or spontaneous, but it's got purpose, and he gets there. And on the other hand... Even the telemetry things like buses and trains never get there directly. All the ways you've got to expect the unexpected. They'll wait. They will never go off at the right time. They know that some friend of theirs has said that he's coming and he'll have to be half an hour late, so they might have to wait half an hour before they get off at the right time.

[33:05]

So you always have to use proclives, but we, as I say, that is direction in our lives. Well, I think that illustrates this two sides to our character, the animus and the anima. And we, in our own lives, have to bring them into relationship. And I may say, I'm only guessing here, but I think in America, you know, the Negro proclive It goes very much back to that. You see, the Negro represents the anima. He is this spontaneous other side of our nature, which in America generally is not accepted. The American has got his goal and his purpose. He's developed this wonderful scientific civilization, and it's going along on that line, and he's not really found a place in his life. for this other side of his being. He's starving one side of his being. And socially, that is expressed in his attitude to the Negro.

[34:07]

I don't want to get too involved, but I think that is a fairly simple deduction, really. And you see, therefore, the Negro problem is something essential to the salvation of America. Only when a Negro is integrated in American life Well, the white America have achieved a real integration in his own life. Let me know you've got to achieve the balance of these opposites. And so in our own personal life, we must see this feminine side of our nature. We must recognize it, and we must respect it, and see that it comes from God. There must be no question. of suppressing it. And on the other hand, we must see this rational side of our nature. We must accept that, and we must accept its limitations. Now, what normally happens to us, I think, is this. Either we tend to give way to the other. We let it have its own way. And then, of course, we're carried away by our sensuality and by all these underground forces in our nature, and we don't know what will come of us.

[35:16]

This is our human state there. They were swung between these two extremes. Either we surrender the anima and we're carried away and we lose control, or else we are terrified of being carried away by our sensuality, and so we get a grip of the animus, of self-control, of reason over us, and we become imprisoned in this rational, scientific control of everything, you see. And there, in society and in our own selves, I think that is what we're always experiencing, this swinging between the optical. And that is what our life as monks has to overcome. Go to discover this inner poise and integration by which we shall not be carried away by the one or the other. Though we have to know our nature, there are some people, and each of us perhaps in certain phases of our lives, we are being carried away by the animal, by our feelings and so on, and we must learn control.

[36:22]

in the beginning of the religious life, very often, that is the principal thing. We've got to learn to live by a rule. We've got to learn order and habit and virtue. And it's very right that we should concentrate on that. But while we're doing so, we must not forget this other side of our nature, and we mustn't allow this control, this rule, this... regimentation to possess us, as it were. And that, I think, is the danger in the... as we become more mature. That's our profession. Very often, well, you know what happens sometimes, somebody goes through the vicious and he's wonderfully self-controlled and keeps the rule absolutely clear, then suddenly he's prepared so everything disappears and he swings over to the opposite. well, not fully, generally, but still, I think it is a certain crisis for our study often, that this other side of our nature, which we left in control, begins to come up again.

[37:30]

And we are faced with this matter, and I think for the matured monk, The provident animus is a really serious one. We've got too much of this control. And now this is the real secret of it. What is causing all this fluctuation, which makes us swing from one to another? There is, as I said, that in the root of human nature is this self-centeredness. It's because we're self-centered that the anima takes charge. If your anima is centered in yourself, in its scope, then it will simply carry you away. And equally, if your animus is centered in yourself, if you're trying to control your life from your own power, then you will find that it will get more and more brittle over you, and you will lose all spontaneity, and you may even lead on to a breakdown.

[38:32]

And that is the principal cause of breakdown, is this animus. this rational mind getting the bound control and simply suppressing the lower nature, and then it can no longer sustain it. And I would say this, at least as a suggestion, that when we have trials of sensuality, particularly in our mature life, and I think many find that they don't decrease very often, they increase as life goes on, I think it's nearly always due not so much to the force of sexuality, to the anima, it's due to a lack of balance in the animus. We're trying to hold down our nature too much. And this rebellion is really God's sign that we've got to relax. And when you attempt it sensually, I think you've got to look not to your sensuality, but to your mind and will and to this rooted pride.

[39:34]

You see, ultimately, if the ego is trying to control the whole being, and it's that rooted pride which is causing this rebellion of nature. So, pride and sensuality, well, that's first of all. altogether the original call of man and I think they go very closely in our whole life and therefore when we attempt essentially we should immediately suspect this inner pride of trying to rule our lives for ourselves. Well now, once we've seen that, the way of salvation probably becomes clear. We've got to release both the anima and the animus, our whole nature, from this grip of self-centeredness, then make us surrender to God. And each of them, the anima and the animus, must be surrendered to God. And when they are, then and then and then, the true marriage can take place.

[40:34]

And that is how I see our monastic diet. As I say, we are called not to fulfill ourselves with marriage, who put ourselves in virginity. It's the two sides of our nature of God who come together in a whole. And what is defeating us is fundamentally this self-centeredness, which is the effect of original sin. And what we're called upon day by day to do is to renounce ourselves utterly into the hands of God. Now, I think there are two aspects of this renunciation. is a woman, and it is natural for a woman to surrender herself. And therefore, in that aspect of our life, each of us has to make a surrender of God exactly as a woman does to her husband, you know, the old... symbolism of Christ in the church enables us to see it in that life. He is the husband to our soul, this feminine soul in us, and for each of us, surely there could be this completely spontaneous and complete surrender of his love to Christ as there is on the part of a woman to her husband.

[41:50]

One of the words of Paul, a speaker, when he speaks about the husband should love her wife as Christ loves the church, this is the mystery of men. Well, so it is with us then. The anima, the woman, the feminine side of us has to be surrendered to God, to Christ. I say rather to Christ because it is a very concrete surrender to God as He has shown Himself to us in the flesh, not simply to the godly abstract. And then we have this other task, if necessary, to surrender the kind of work. And now that, for us as monks, I think is often a very difficult task. The unending work is the principle of reason, of order, of virtue and of perfection, we could say, through the animus that we're striving of perfection.

[42:55]

We want to keep the rule, we want to grab virtue, we want to be a perfect man, we have to say. And that is a perfectly right aspiration. But it will only be fulfilled when the animus has surrendered itself to God. As long as the least trace of egoism in an animus, instead of reaching perfection, we will simply be enclosing ourselves in a state of self-doubt. perfection. It's the greatest obstacle to all spiritual perfection, this control of the animals. And as you know, we have a great mystery in the Gospel that it wasn't the publicans and the harlots, who crucified Christ, people of the Pharisees. The Republicans, the harlots, he said, the great of England, the poor you, they are the people who live by their animal. And they are at fault, but still it's not the fault of a deliberate pride of maliciousness.

[44:00]

As I said, you see everywhere in India, and I know all over the Middle East as well, it's a sort of having carried away by their nature. And it hasn't got this ego of self in it to the same extent. But the Pharisee, you see, was the righteous man. I think that I am not like other men. I suppose that I am. He was justified in his own eyes. He was living from the catacombs. He was keeping the law. He was justified by the law. This is the... work of the animals, and surely that is our dangerous mind. Now, we've got this wonderful rule, we want to live by the rule, and we like to have an order, we should have an order in our life, but we can cling to all that in the wrong way. You know, you can get bound by the rule, you can get bound by your observance, you can get bound by the cult of virtue, and so you're getting more and more cut off in yourself, and therefore the animals

[45:03]

has to make this very profound surrender. And that means, surely, it's surrendering to the action of God in our life from day to day. And that, I think, is the key to it, isn't it? We have a mood, you see, and we take a while at this time, and we go out to work at that time, but In actual life, we're always met with certain particular terms. That is, when we're going to require that we may meet some brother or some father, that he may require something of us. Well, there is the action of God in the concrete. God is coming into our lives, and that father or that brother Or it may be just in the rain. We're going up to the church in a southerly adult where a rain comes, so we're confronted then with an action of God. And it's this response to God's concrete action in our life. That is how we surrender the animus. And the natural reaction of the animus when it rains is to say, well, what a nuisance. Why should it rain now, just as I enjoy it now? The church, you see, we need to react against these things.

[46:07]

But the reaction of the animus surrendered to God is the brain comes from God. God has set his brain. I'm involved in this situation because God has ruled it. I surrender to God in that situation. So it is, we follow our brother, he may come with some demurred on us, we may think it's just the wrong time to be asking me about this. There's no need now, I'm going to do this after church, after the office. But no, this is God's action. He's moved that brother to act in this way. I'm confronted with God in that brother, in that situation, and my response must be to give my due. I may refuse, if I may, in the light of God's grace, saying very gently, I'll speak about it afterwards, but it must be very gently, and it must be down in the light of God, not as a kind of mental reaction. So, the surrender of the universe comes from this surrender to God's action in our lives, and in the concrete, in the situation in which we are.

[47:10]

When a taking rather long, but I hope that brings out the main lines of this grace, as it is called, of virginity in our lives, that we have this call from God to make a complete surrender of our love to him, the whole impulse of love in our nature. which can go through these different channels and can go into marriage. We are called and we respond to the call to surrender this love totally. And that means that the two sides of our nature, one in God and the other in us, must be totally surrendered to God. And when we do that, then the true marriage takes place. Then we have a wholeness in our lives. And that surely is what we must continually seek. And as long as we find, of course we shall find in ourselves, That lack of balance, one straining against the other, that must be a warning to us that we've not attained the balance, that we've still got to make this deeper surrender.

[48:19]

And that is where, as I said, this self-will, this self-centeredness is so deeply rooted, and we find that all the time it's thwarting our efforts to reach this surrender, to reach this balance. And all the trials of our life are simply warnings, from this side and from that, that we've not attained the balance. I think that is the thing, David, when we're tempted in one way or another by pride or by sensuality, it's the warning from God that That lack of balance in our nature, I have to try to make the surrender at that point and to recover the balance. And so, if we follow up this part of self-surrender, there should be this gradual meeting of the two sides of our nature, this gradual marriage of our whole being, which will make us whole men, completely mature, fulfilling all the instincts of our nature. You see, the wonderful mystery is that by renouncing their use, the ordinary way in marriage, and...

[49:24]

the general like of the senses, we consecrate them to God, but they reach their fulfillment through God. And in the cool, elastic life that we owe, there is a wonderful opportunity for fulfillment of our whole being. It's within a narrower sphere, but nevertheless, it is more fundamentally complete. There is a greater opportunity, actually, for this full integration. So I feel that it will be a great help for us if we can see our domestic life in those terms and our true fulfillment of our being, of our full being in God by this fundamental self-surrender. Then there again we see the same principle of death and resurrection. coming into our lives. As we die to that self-centeredness in the two sides of our nature, so our nature recovers its true being and we return to that unity of being in God for which we were created. And that, of course, is our

[50:26]

We're moving towards the resurrection when the whole of our being will be reunited with God. The whole animal nature, the whole rational nature will be revived, will be united in a perfect whole in the unity of this good one. I pray God will have you in the service of the people of the world. We look now at the garden of blessings in your protection. Give peace to those that have deceived it. Open to us the sea of the God of water. Protect the streets of the witness of the place of God. Form the most great streets of your life. Make us children of quietness and the ears of people. Be good enough to cry out to God. So it must be a strict normative work of promise, rather closely to you and to each other, a firm and breakable bond of unity.

[51:29]

Amen.

[51:31]

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